Veteran Kashmiri leader, Syed Ali Geelani, has said that India despite being signatory to UN resolutions on Kashmir has been denying Kashmiris their right to self-determination since 1947. Geelani in a media interview in Srinagar commenting on denial of passport to him by the Indian authorities said: "There are hundreds of Kashmiris whose passport applications have been rejected on frivolous grounds. This is one of the forms of suppression," KMS reported.
He hit out at pro-India Kashmiri political parties, saying that they were gaining political mileage on his application for passport to appease their vote banks.
The veteran leader spoke at length on the row over his application for passport to meet his ailing daughter in Saudi Arabia. "All pro-India parties - whether it is BJP, PDP, Congress or National Conference - are playing politics over my passport. Those who oppose issuance of passport to me want to appease their vote bank, and those who support it want to gain sympathy among Kashmiris who support ongoing freedom movement," he maintained.
"These parties have always been at forefront of using different tactics including elections and development card to dilute the aspirations of Kashmiris for right to self-determination," he added.
"If people at the helm of affairs in the Government of India issue passport to me, that will not be any favour to me. Obtaining travel documents is a basic right and its denial tantamount to human rights violation," he added.
"Hundreds of divided families living on both sides of Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir cannot meet as most of them have been denied travel documents," he further said.
To a question, he said, "With presence of eight hundred thousand troopers, Kashmir has one of the highest military concentrations in the world. India has closed all our traditional routes to neighbouring countries and taken over our natural resources. This has made us fully dependent on it for power, water, roads and jobs. We are living in forcible control of India."
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